Premonición

I went to see Premonition yesterday and I enjoyed it very much, so I can't understand why people say that this is a bad film. It's a good psychological drama with top acting and good directing. It's a movie on which you have to focus, but that goes automatically and it's not so hard to follow when you don't think "What the hell is going on" during the film.

Sandra Bullock is very convincing, as always, and we also get some good performances by Kate Nelligan, Nia Long and Julian McMahon.

So please, don't listen to the critics, they don't know what they're talking about. And as for the rating on IMDb: the only explanation I can think of is that a lot of people don't get this film because it's too complicated (although it's not), or because they didn't like the ending, or maybe because they expected too much. But this is definitely a very good drama, and it's one of those movies that make you think about how important life is.

Everyone who wants to see this movie: see it without any expectations and prejudices, you won't be disappointed.

Even though 'Premonition' is a remake, it starts off quite well by creating the suspense but as the story proceeds, we are presented with more plot holes (the scar on the daughter's face was absent on Wednesday but she crashed into glass on Tuesday) and towards the end it all becomes ridiculously messy. It is quite well shot and Sandra Bullock does a commendable job carrying the whole film. However the writing is a letdown and the background score acts as a spoiler. The supporting cast does not stand out much as they are not given much to do. Julian McMahon is quite okay. 'Premonition' pretty much turns out just to be another one of those thrillers that one can watch once and then forget. Towards the end, the writer throws in the religious angle (Bullock's character was not portrayed as someone religious or one who lost faith, thus this does not quite fit) which looks forced and of course the usual Hollywood ending. It is not exactly a boring film as one would sit through it till the end. Mostly because we are interested to know what happens to Linda (Bullock makes us care about her). Other than that, the film creates a mood that keeps the viewer somewhat involved.

Relative newcomers, writer Bill Kelly and director Mennan Yapo, have concocted a testy little conundrum of a movie titled PREMONITION: whether the audience decides to step into their little nightmare or reject the premise that powerful emotions can drive the brain to peculiar directions of functioning will be the divisive break in acceptance of the film's premise. It is a fairly well done, thought provoking experience and is carried by some better than average performances by a strong cast.

The Hanson family is introduced as the husband Jim (Julian McMahon) and wife Linda (Sandra Bullock) buy their new home. Jump forward after the credits to a family that now includes two young schoolgirls (Shyann McClure and Courtney Taylor Burness), a seemingly mildly depressed Linda and a workaholic Jim. Abruptly, Linda is informed by a police officer that Jim has died in an auto accident and her close friend (Nia Long) and mother (Irene Ziegler) help Linda through the early moments of the tragedy. Yet Linda continues to 'relive' moments: one day Jim is dead the next he is alive, and all of the pieces of the puzzle that erode Linda's mind become clues to investigate information she doesn't want to know. She encounters a warped psychiatrist (Peter Stormare) and a possible 'other woman' in Jim's life (Amber Valletta), and as she attempts to mold the puzzle pieces to make sense, she learns about the possible 'why' of the mental state in which she is trapped.

The film has problems holding credibility, but then the premise is a novel enough to allow such missteps. Sandra Bullock takes over this role completely, gains our empathy, and in the end the film works because of her. She is becoming an actress who is learning the value of understatement and that aspect of her craft serves her well. No, this is not a great movie, but it is a well-produced little mystery that asks the audience to engage both mind and imagination, and that is a good thing! Grady Harp

"Premonition" had all the elements for being a great thriller, but it ended up as a somewhat mediocre mess. The jumping around days part was interesting, but it was ultimately the director who killed the potential of "Premonition".

Normally I do like the performances in movies by Sandra Bullock, but she was way off in "Premonition". I didn't buy into her performance as a woman who had just lost her husband and the father of their daughters. It was like she wasn't fully there mentally, and that absent performance weighed down on the movie in overall. Julian McMahon did a good enough job as the husband and father.

I was disappointed with the mediocrity of the movie, because I must admit that I had expected much more from a movie with Bullock and McMahon in the lead roles.

The movie was also a bit shallow. The part with the affair in the making was just brought up briefly and then brushed well clear off the table. The characters could have used a bit more depth and background.

All in all, not an overly impressive or memorable thriller. This is not a movie at the top of the recommendation list if you want to watch a good thriller.

Sandra Bullock has to try to figure out if her husband is a live or dead as she shifts through time and dream to sort out her life and his possible death.

New Age-y story is too confusing and less than engaging in a Lifetime style supernatural tale for the big screen. TV movie feel aside the film suffers from doubling and tripling back on itself about nine times too many so that when you get to the end, the "THIS IS REAL" moment you really won't care since you'll have ad the wool pulled over your eyes once too often. I saw this in the theater and began to play a video game on my cellphone to pass the time to the end because I didn't care what was happening I just wanted to know what the end really was(and lest you think I disturbed anyone by doing so, I was all alone). Whats worse my reaction at the end was a loud "Thats it?" said in disbelief.

Its movies like this that make you wonder why we go to the movies when they throw such crap at us.